Computer networks have become specialized in the storage of data and are often referred to as a storage network or storage area network (SAN). These storage networks have been historically built around a magnetic rotating platter often referred to as a hard disk. The network storage devices in these historical storage networks include hard disks with sophisticated controllers that provide enhanced data access services. These controllers create Logical Units (LUNs), comprised of hard disks or portions of hard disks. The controller then presents the LUNs to servers on the network for use as networked storage devices.
A fundamental aspect of this arrangement is based on the dependence on rotational media. When retrieving data from such a device, a processor waits until the platter rotates to the position where it started reading. The access latency for a single read operation on a hard drive is a random value that is a function of the physical location of the data on the platter.
The effects of this can be mitigated for sequential data, with its predictable pattern of the next read operation. Placing written data on sequential sectors of the disk of a hard drive, ensures that read operations occur with minimal rotational latency. However, a large portion of real-world data access is random in nature. The next read operation of non-sequential data is difficult to predict.
Storage area networks have been formed taking into consideration the latency of hard disk drives and the random nature of read and write operations. Numerous input/output storage requests are handled by such storage area networks.
Communicating to networked storage devices can be challenging in a storage area network. With traditional communication of commands to a network switch over Ethernet, the performance of a storage area network may be slowed.
It is desirable to improve communication and data access to networked storage devices within storage area networks.